Defendant is convicted of molesting four children. So you know he's going to be sentenced for a long time, even if he has no prior criminal record.
He receives a sentence of 785 years to life (plus an additional six years). That's because the trial court imposed the sentences consecutively, agreeing with the prosecutor that the law granted no discretion for concurrent sentences in these types of cases.
The Court of Appeal reverses. There is, in fact, discretion. So maybe some, or all, of those 25-to-life sentences can be served concurrently. Remand.
Though I'll mention one thing in this regard that's nowhere in the opinion, but which you can nonetheless find out when you look up the defendant on the California Inmate Locator website.
He's 72 years old.
Which means that there's no way that any of this actually matters. He's going to die in prison regardless, or (if he's lucky) get compassionate release shortly before he dies.
But, hey, at least we eventually got the law right.
